


Adrift

by Curaga777



Category: Final Fantasy VIII, Kingdom Hearts (Video Games)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-18
Updated: 2020-12-18
Packaged: 2021-03-10 16:35:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,351
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28150248
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Curaga777/pseuds/Curaga777
Summary: Leon is returned to the world of FFVIII. Strifehart.
Relationships: Cloud/Leon (Kingdom Hearts)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 44





	Adrift

Leon is returned to the world of FFVIII. Strifehart.

=

He waited. 

There was nothing else for it. There was no all encompassing darkness anymore. No Heartless. No worlds twinkling out of the sky at night. 

There was no one and no thing to fight to change it.

He'd come back to his world. The world before the darkness. The one that had fallen before any of them had even known what was happening.

Ansem had been the one to tell him everything when he'd woken in Radiant Garden. When the worlds in the sky had first begun to disappear. 

The fate of his world had left him empty and shaken. And angry. 

-

He had been 'home' for three days.

Everyone had been overjoyed at his return. All those people made flesh and bone instead of ghosts in his memories.

Zell, Quistis, Irvine, Rinoa. 

To the knowledge of those who had disappeared when the world fell, it had been two years since the world was restored. Since then, those who had washed ashore in other worlds had gradually begun to trickle back (through some flux of the worlds and no volition of their own) home with stories of what happened. 

Some were skeptical of the stories, claiming those who had witnessed the death and rebirth of the worlds were insane and victims of the scorcess troubles. 

Others, like those in Garden, like Zell, Irvine, Quistis, and Rinoa, did believe. 

How else to explain the return of Seifer and Selphie as young teenagers? Something thrown amok in the progression of their time. How else was there to explain Leon's own lost years? 

Everyone he knew should have been nineteen or twenty. And here he was, visibly nearly a decade older than them. He felt it now too.

Every interaction was stilted and awkward. None of them knew how to talk to him, what to say. They hadn't even been sure he was him when he'd first arrived at the gates of Balamb.

-

"Who'd you say you were?"  
"Squall Leonhart."  
"You sure don't look like Headmaster Leonhart to me."  
"..."  
"You got any ID on you or-?"

-

Leon shifted and resettled, looking out of the curved bay window of his room from where he sat in a chair he'd pulled over. The view was of the grassy plains of Balamb that ran down to the beach and further to the open expanse of the ocean. 

On his second day back, he'd gone to the beach with his gunblade in hand and cleared the area of Fastitocalon. Afterwards, when he was tired, sweaty, and a little dehydrated from the beach sun and heat he was no longer used to, he'd sat down on the sand and stared out at the ocean. 

His mind wondered on...everything.  
Had all those on the Restoration Committee gone back to their own worlds? Was Sora still out there fighting for the sake of all the worlds? Were the Heartless still lingering outside Radiant Garden?  
Where was Cloud? How was Cloud? Where was-

His heart had begun to beat so hard and fast, he couldn't breathe for a moment. The hand not gripping his gunblade in the sand flew to his shirt and clenched the neckline at his throat.  
He couldn't breathe.  
Oh. Hyne. Where was Cloud?

He'd continued sitting in the sand, long after the panic and sun had waned. 

-

Today, on his third day back, he sat in his apartment and stared out the window at the murky sky and lightning crackling along the distant horizon. 

The panic was sporadic and kept coming and going. It wouldn't let him sleep more than a few hours at a time. No one had come to check in on him yet today. He wondered when that would begin to change from what he had found to be a rotation of his friends that sought him out and asked how he was. He knew what it was. They were afraid for him. They didn't know him anymore. Ten years was a long time. 

Xu, perpetually in Leon's memories as a wall fixture person, unobtrusive and steady, had proven herself a more than capable Commander and Headmaster of Balamb Garden. She'd held the position for two years, once it became apparent that Squall had vanished. 

Leon hadn't even been to the Headmaster's office since his return. 

-

After entering Garden he'd been ushered to Dr. Kadowaki for a once over. She'd been the only one so far to comment on his changed appearance. She looked him in the face and asked.  
"How long have you been gone for, Squall?"

Her voice had a way of working through to him, a balm for the nerves fraying beneath his shell, able to expose them for the treatment they needed.  
His throat had tightened as he spoke, alone, to her in her infirmary.  
"Ten years."

She'd finished her exam and given his shoulder a squeeze before releasing him back to those waiting for him outside.

-

They never left him alone that first day back. 

Everyone had gathered for a late dinner to celebrate the full reunion of their group. 

Rinoa had put her arms around his neck, leaned up to kiss his cheek. He let her but removed her arms afterwards. Offering a simple and soft, "I can't." And nothing more. 

She seemed hurt by it but nodded in understanding. They sat for a while and spoke of nothing consequential. The worlds beyond the sky (unreachable by methods they had here), the great beasts he'd encountered, her new role at Garden as an instructor in paramagic. She'd grown up as well. 

Nearing midnight he approached Quistis and asked where he would be staying. She'd lead him to his old quarters, back when he'd been Commander. Their unspoken exchange had been quick, a raised eyebrow from him 'this should be Xu's'. A small shrug from her 'try telling any of them that.' it had almost made him feel comfortable. He'd bid her goodnight and laid down to an unrestful sleep.

Going on three days of sporadic sleep was beginning to take its toll. He could feel the fatigue bone deep. Life had not been the easiest within Radiant Garden but he had settled into a routine and now-

"They're gone." He said into the silence of his apartment.  
The thunder rumbled in a distant answer.

Maybe if he'd gotten the chance to say goodbye, he could take comfort in knowing they'd returned to where they belonged. 

As it was, all he felt was the loss of them. Empty, aching. 

-

He dreamt of Cloud. 

He dreamt of the home the Restoration Committee had shared. There was a creek in the floorboards going up the stairs but the walls were thick and mostly sound resistant so the comings and goings didn't bother him too much. The noises of life within the house let him rest easier, feeling as though someone were always on guard and awake though he knew that was not the case.

Exactly when hastily pressed kisses after battles and sweaty foreheads touching in relief of surviving had gone from just that to having another body beside him at night was lost to him. He was grateful for it. Being able to wind his arm around a waist and know he was welcome was something he'd never had before. 

Waking to Cloud sleeping quietly on the other side of his...their bed, or sometimes not so far away and wedged against him, gave him more comfort than he could say. 

He woke from stolen moments of sleep now, arm reaching across his bed to find nothing but cool sheets.  
A half whispered name left him before he regained himself. Hearing the name spoken aloud as he remembered where he was and who he was without hit him with enough force to leave him breathless for a moment. He curled into the blanket and sheet, pointedly refusing to acknowledge the feeling of wetness on his cheek. 

What good would it do?  
No use crying over something that could not be fixed, over someone he would never see again. 

And yet…


End file.
